Pressing soles



J. J. HEYs PRESSING SOLES June 30, 1931.

Filed Dec. lO, 1926 Fig.

f @E f Y m@ /NHHHA JAHM .y HCH? DUMY J/ Patented June 30, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT' oFFlcE" JOHN J'. HEYS, DECEASED, LATE OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS', VBY LUCY A. HEYS AND GEORGE H.`HEYS, XECUTOES, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, .ESSIGNORS T0 rUNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY,

OF NEW JERSEY A CORPORATION PRESSING SOLES Application filed December 10, 1926. Serial No. 153,968. A

This invention relates to sole pressing machines and methods and is herein disclosed by reference to a leveling machine of the socalled direct pressure type,'such as is shown generally in the United` States Letters Patent No. 581,662, granted April 27, 1897, on the application of John J. Heys. The invention is not, however, to be understood as limited to -leveling machines of this type, nor indeed to leveling machines or methodsalone, many of the advantages of the invention being obtainable, for example, in the use of sole laying or molding machines. A

Leveling machines of the type mentioned ordinarily comprise two primary pressure imparting members which are moved relatively toward each other by a power mechanism, as for example, a cam or a crank shaft, or a toggle mechanism connected with one of them, to apply pressure to a sole held between them. The sole is, in general, held on a leveling last -or form mounted on one of the members and supporting the inside face of the sole, and the `,other member carries a` complementally shaped outer-face-pressing form cci-operating with the first-named form under-pressure of a spring located between the primary pressure imparting members to shape the sole. It has never been possible in such machines to secure uniform pressure per square inch upon soles of different sizes without resorting to impractical procedure in regard to adjustment to each size of sole. The distance between theV primary pressure imparting members at the time of maximum pressure is invariable except as modified by such adjustment, and the total pressure applied to the sole is proportional -to the compression of.

the spring and is therefore substantially constant for shoes of a given style unless the vmachine is adjusted for each size of shoe. A #2 sole is about 17 square inches in area and a #8 sole is about 24 square inches in area, and this results ina considerably less pressure per square inch upon the larger sole than upon the smaller. While machines have in eluded heretofore means for adj ustablyvarying the amount of pressure, operato-rs cannot always be depended upon to make the adjustment 1n changing from one sizel to another, and moreover there has been no definite way of determining how much adjustment was required.

In view of the above and other consideraitions, the present invention provides a novel method and novel means whereby the proper amount of pressure per unit of area is insured `without preliminary adjustment. In accordance with the novel method', in one aspect,A 1

there is utilized, for leveling or pressing soles of each different size and surface area, a different spring-controlled sole-pressing form of a thickness proportional to the size of the sole, to cause correspondingly different amounts of stress of the spring such as to produce substantially the same unit pressure in operating on the diierent sized soles. As a part of a novel machine organization, the invention provides, for operating on a given sole, a

form having Vsufficienty thickness to effect such ,additional compression of the spring, as compared with a form of less thickness correlsponding tothe area of a smaller sole, asto apply to the given sole substantially the same pressure per unit of area as would be applied by the thinner formrto the smaller sole. The desired uniformity in the amount .of pressure applied is accordingly secured without any labor or care on the part of the operator other than that involved in the cusltomary changing of the forms for soles of difcorresponding shoes increasing in size from left to right; and

Fig. 3 shows the outlines of the four soles treated in the apparatus of Fig. 2.

The machine of Fig. l will in its general aspects, be found fully described in the patent above referred to. It comprises a primary piessure imparting member or table l0 on which is mounted the so-called lower form 12 and which is forced vertically to` ward the so-called upper form 1a'- by a cam 1G which is rotated about a vertical axis. The high point of this cam always raises the table l0 to the same point, and the low point drops it down to permit change of work. The upper form le is supported on the end of a plunger 18 which is resiliently pressed downward by a very heavy spring 20, housed in the head of the frame. rl`he uppei abutment 22, the other primary pressure imparting member, is adjustable by a screw 2l. The forms l2 and le are made of metal and are shaped complementarily to conform to the shape desired on the shoe bottom. In view of the confusion resulting from the terms lower and upper7 because of the inversion of the shoe, these foims will be herein called inner7 and outer respectively, though no limitation is thereby intended to the. treatment of a sole already on a slioe, the invention being useful in the treatment of unattached soles.

The total pressure on the shoe depends on the compression of the spring 20. Prior to the present invention, the combined height of the forms 12 and ist has always been uniform for kall sizes. Thus the bottom end of t-he plunger 18 was always raised to the same point, and the spring would be compressed to the same extent in treating all shoes unless the compression were relieved for the small shoes by adjusting the abutment Operators frequently neglected this with the result that the large slices got too little pressure or the small ones too much, and the smaller inner forms were often broken. liloi'eover, operators had no definite knowledge of the amount of adjustment needed to give uniform pressure on soles of different sizes. Y

rlhe present invention avoids this difficulty by varying, Yas herein illustrated, the combined thicknesses of the forms and the consequent spring distortion to control the total .pressure on soles of different sizes without `adjustment by he operator. The spring 2O used in the disclosed machine was carefully calibrated and found to have a coeflicient of distortion of about 1l Vtons per inch of compression. rlhe areas of a standard set of soles were measured, and the thicknesses of the combined form-pairs were so arranged as to secure substantially uniform unit pressure on all soles, irrespective of the areas,

without adjustment or care by the operator.

It was found that in order to get the desired pressure of about 55() pounds per square inch, on this set of soles, the spring required an additional compression of l/32 inch per unit increase in size of shoe.

This was arrived at as follows: The .#2 sole had about 16.59 square inches area, and the #8, about 23.89 square inches. The increase therefore was about 1.22 square inches per size. The increment of pressure was therefore about 1.22X 550:670 pounds and the chano'e in length of the spring required to produce this pressure was 'Y This grading was all put into the outer forms in the disclosed apparatus. Thus, when the proper pair of forms for a shoe is put in the machine, it automatically takes care 0f the presure.

Four such pairs of forms are shown in Fig. 2. rThe increase in thickness of the form pairs has been grossly exaggerated for the sake of clearness in disclosure.

Having described the invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A sole-pressing machine having a pair of pressure-applying forms and a pressure mechanism comprising a spring arrangedto forceV the forms relatively toward eachv other with a sole between them, the pair of such forms having sole-engaging areas to operate upon a sole of a certain area, one of said forms having sutlicient thickness to provide it with a portion to effect suchadditional compression of the spring during the operation of the machine as to cause the machine, without preliminary adjustment, to apply to such sole substantially the same pressure per unit of area as would be applied to a sole of less area when operated upon by such machine provided with a form of correspondingly less thickness. 4

2. That improvement in methods of leveling or pressing soles of varying sizes and surface areas which consists insubjecting the soles to pressure between sole-engaging forms, one of which is backed by a spring, and causing said forms to apply substantially the same pressure pei' unit of area to soles of different sizes and surface areas by varying the total thickness of the forms in pro- .031 inch.

portion to the areas of the soles being oper- Ving, for leveling soles of each different size and area, a different spring-controlled solepressing form of a thickness proportional to the size of the sole, to cause correspondingly different amount-s of stress of the spring such as to produce substantially the same unit prlessure n operating on the different sized so es.

In testimony whereof We, the said LUCY A. HEYS and GEORGE H. HEYS, have signed our names to this specification.

' LUCY A. HEYS,

GEORGE H. HEYS, Emeeuors of the Wz'ZZ of Jaim J. Heys, de-

ceased. 

